Maybe Francis Seow was wrong after all?

[promisedland]

SINGAPORE: The government has decided to accord the late Mrs Lee Kuan Yew the honour of being borne on the ceremonial gun carriage for her final journey to the Mandai Crematorium for the funeral service on Wednesday.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office says this honour is in recognition of her exceptional and unique contributions to Singapore for more than five decades, beginning before Singapore became independent.

More mourners turned up to pay their last respects to Mrs Lee on the second day of her wake at Sri Temasek, the official residence of the Prime Minister and located within the Istana grounds.

Many foreign dignitaries were also at Sri Temasek to bid their final goodbye to Madam Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who died on Saturday after a long illness at age 89.

Among the foreign dignitaries was Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the leader of Malaysia's opposition PAS and Menteri Besar of Kelantan state.

Speaking to MediaCorp, Datuk Nik Aziz conveyed his condolences to the Lee family and said he believed they would have the courage and strength to move on.

Ministers from Malaysia like Shahrizat Abdul Jalil also shared their memories of Mrs Lee.

Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Malaysia's Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, said: "I have the greatest admiration and respect for Mrs Lee Kuan Yew because she epitomises to me substance and style. She had great values and dignity.

"And I believe one of the reasons why Mr Lee Kuan Yew has been so successful is because she has been beside him all the while, providing a stable, steady, strong influence and it's very important for a spouse to be that way."

Former Malaysian Cabinet minister, Daim Zainuddin, also turned up at the wake to pay his last respects.

Other visitors included Brunei's Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah.

The foreign dignitaries had met Mrs Lee when she accompanied her husband on trips abroad.

But there were many others who had never met her but who felt compelled to pay homage to someone whom they regarded as an inspiration to women.

"I saw Mrs Lee on television together with MM Lee when I was a primary school kid in Penang. I thought that she would make a wonderful lady and wife for a great leader, because she appeared to be humble and very down-to-earth," said Kam Choo Choo, one of the mourners at the wake.

There were also students from Methodist Girls' School, Madam Kwa's alma mater.

MGS student, Jeanne Ng, said: "It really means a lot that she's an ex-MGS girl, because I'm proud to be part of the school she attended. And it's also very inspiring, because she really exemplified our mission statement - to master, to grow and to serve - in every phase of her life. And to me that's very inspiring."

Mrs Lee was an intensely private person. Most people know about her through her husband's memoirs or through news reports when she accompanied Mr Lee on functions and on overseas trips.

But away from the media glare, Mrs Lee was also a brilliant lawyer who was instrumental in advancing the rights of women in Singapore in the early years of independence. This included pushing for women to retain their maiden names after marriage. Previously they could only use their husband's name.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said: "For us, we take it for granted, but at that time, in a lot of countries, women still could not use their own names to do business or enterprise or even to run a professional institution or to borrow money.

"So we should thank her for being foresighted....for helping women to improve the women's legal status."

- CNA

 

[Areopagus]

http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-444.htm

Why, a reader wrote to the Straits Times to ask, was Ong Teng Cheong (President of Singapore 1993 – 1999) not likewise given a state funeral when he died in February 2002?



Presidents of Singapore since independence:
1965 -1970 Yusof Ishak
1970 - 1981 Benjamin Henry Sheares
1981 - 1985 C V Devan Nair
1985 - 1993 Wee Kim Wee
1993 - 1999 Ong Teng Cheong
1999 - present S R Nathan



The government's reply was an empty one (see the excerpt from the Straits Times on the right). Basically it said that the policy on state funerals was "still evolving" and is decided on a case-by-case basis by the Prime Minister and the cabinet. You'd notice that it completely failed to address the key question: WHY didn't Ong get a state funeral?

Two former presidents have passed away before. Yusof Ishak and Benjamin Sheares, the first and second presidents of Singapore respectively, both died in office and were given state funerals.

Thus, of the 4 former presidents who have passed away, only one, Ong Teng Cheong, didn't get a state funeral.

Most Singaporeans think they know the reason: Ong had taken his office too seriously and challenged Goh Chok Tong's government on a number of issues, particularly that relating to the value of the reserves. Worse yet, upon leaving office, he made his grievances public. It was nearly scandalous, coming from someone who had once been a Deputy Prime Minister and a People's Action Party (PAP) stalwart.

<snipped>

Here is the relevant portion of Asiaweek's interview with Ong (issue dated 10 March 2000)

It was this issue that caused the dispute between you and the government?

Yes. But I don't want to go into details and upset everybody. The thing is that the elected president is supposed to protect the reserves, but he was not told what these are until five years later. From the day the Constitution was amended in 1991 to provide for an elected president, he was supposed to fulfil that role. My predecessor, Wee Kim Wee, although he was not elected, was supposed to play that role during the last two years of his term. But he did not actively check. So, when I came in in 1993, I asked for all this information about the reserves. It took them three years to give it to me.

The holdup was for administrative reasons?

Either that or they did not think there was any urgency. You see, if you ask me to protect the reserves, then you've got to tell me what I'm supposed to protect. So I had to ask.

Why did they not want to tell you?

I do not know. Don't ask me, because I don't have the answer. I've been asking them. In fact, in 1996, exactly halfway through my term, I wrote prime minister Goh a letter. At that time, everybody was expecting a general election in December or January. After the election, a new government would be sworn in. When that happens, all the reserves, whether past or current, become past reserves and are locked up on the changeover date. As president, I have to safeguard them and they can only be drawn upon with my permission. So I said to Mr Goh It's already halfway through my term, but until today I still don't know all these figures about the reserves.

So the government had been stonewalling you, the president, for three years?

Yes. What happened actually was, as you know, in accounting, when you talk about reserves, it's either cash reserves or assets reserves. The cash side is straightforward investment, how many million dollars here and there, how much comes from the investment boards and so on. That was straightforward -- but still we had to ask for it. For the assets, like properties and so on, normally you say it's worth $30 million or $100 million or whatever. But they said it would take 56-man years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. So I discussed this with the accountant-general and the auditor-general and we came to a compromise. The government would not need to give me the dollar-and-cents value, just give me a listing of all the properties that the government owns.

They agreed?

Well, yes, they agreed, but they said there's not the time for it. It took them a few months to produce the list. But even when they gave me the list, it was not complete.

It seems the Singapore government does not know its own assets?

Yes. It's complicated. It's never been done before. And for the assets of land, I can understand why. Every piece of land, even a stretch of road, is probably subdivided into many lots. There are 50,000 to 60,000 lots and every one has a number. If you want to value them all, it would take a long time. In the past, they have just locked everything up and assumed it is all there. But if I am to protect it, at least I want to know the list.

When they eventually gave you the list -- the incomplete list, did you have enough staff to do the checking and other work?

No, I did not. I only had one administrative staffer and two part-timers from the auditor-general's office.


You can see the Asiaweek article at
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000310a3.htm

14 May 2005
Straits Times

PM and Cabinet decide who gets state funeral

Singaporeans who have made 'truly exceptional contributions' will receive a state funeral.

But it is not feasible to have a set formula on who gets one, based on a person's previous rank or appointment, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's press secretary said yesterday.

'The decision to hold one is made by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet,' Mr Chen Hwai Liang said in his letter to the Today newspaper and Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao.

[snip]

As a young country, Singapore's practices and customs for public ceremonies and observances are still evolving, added Mr Chen. 'As the years pass, we will gradually establish norms and traditions that will reflect the Singapore way of honouring our best sons and daughters who have passed away, that is dignified, restrained and expresses the gratitude and sense of loss of the nation.'

 

[cooleo]

>>Yes. It's complicated. It's never been done before. And for the assets of land, I can understand why. Every piece of land, even a stretch of road, is probably subdivided into many lots. There are 50,000 to 60,000 lots and every one has a number. If you want to value them all, it would take a long time. In the past, they have just locked everything up and assumed it is all there. But if I am to protect it, at least I want to know the list.

When they eventually gave you the list -- the incomplete list, did you have enough staff to do the checking and other work?

No, I did not. I only had one administrative staffer and two part-timers from the auditor-general's office.<<

KNN i got more helpers in my office than late President Ong. Mind you, he was checking the reserves! 2 are part-timers somemore! :oIo: